Sanford Speaks Out is the latest blog sensation written, edited and produced by Sanford D. Horn, a writer and educator. Sanford will write about issues of the day covering a myriad subjects: politics, education, culture, sports, religion and even food.

Friday, June 25, 2010

If ever there was proof of this administration’s duplicitous behavior toward those to whom they are most answerable, the American citizen, it is in the recent Public Service Announcement made by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

“You work hard, and you have the right to be paid fairly. I'm U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and it is a serious problem when workers in this country are not being paid every cent that they earn. Remember, every worker in America has a right to be paid fairly, whether documented or not. So, call us -- it is free and confidential – at 1-866-487-9243. We can help.”

For this anti-American worker treachery, Solis should be fired immediately and charged with Malfeasance of Office. In fact, add Barack Obama to that warrant for aiding and abetting Solis with his potential granting of amnesty to the 12 to 20 million illegal aliens via an Executive Order. Knowingly allowing lawbreakers to remain in the United States and gain from such miscreant behavior seems to fit the description of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” as required by the United States Constitution for impeachment charges. (After all, Bill Clinton faced impeachment for screwing one American, Obama is screwing 304 million Americans.) Obama already ceded his responsibilities to protect the Arizona border from invasion, just so that issue isn’t forgotten.

“Every worker in America has a right to be paid fairly, whether documented or not…” Did Solis miss the part about undocumented workers being in this country illegally and having no rights to work or play in these United States? Apparently Solis thinks it is acceptable to have American workers on the unemployment lines while illegals collect, often times, tax-free income from employers who are also violating the law.

Shut down those employers until they weed out the illegals from their ranks. There is no need to fine them, for every day their doors are closed, they will lose money. It will become incumbent upon the employers of illegals to clean house as quickly as possible. That lost revenue and income will far outweigh the financial benefits of hiring illegals for less than the minimum wage.

Illegal workers in this country only degrade the economy of the United States as legal unemployed workers are collecting unemployment compensation from the government. Simultaneously, illegal aliens often send most of their wages to their home countries, thus depriving American businesses of that capital.

Bear in mind that the issue of illegal aliens transcends partisan politics. Both major political parties have acted egregiously in either ignoring the problem or encouraging its rampant expansion with each passing year, term and administration, regardless who is at the helm.

Additionally, according to the Department of Labor, 250 people are paid to enforce the Solis PSA. Of course, ultimately, the taxpayers are paying for the production, airing and enforcement of the content of that PSA.

When will the government wake up to the reality that incentives will only encourage more and more folks to sneak across the borders – be it from Mexico or Canada or washing up on our already dirtied shores. Take away the incentives of jobs, health care, education, and the ultimate insult to those people in line to become nationalized, the anchor baby debacle. This is why the 14th Amendment to the Constitution must be amended.

The initial intention of the 14th Amendment was to ensure citizenship upon the decedents of freed slaves. Now, 142 years, almost to the day, (July 9, 1868) since the ratification of that Amendment and 145 years since the end of the War Between the States, there is no longer a necessity to grant citizenship to anyone simply because they happened to be fortunate enough to be born on American soil.

Insert a caveat that the offspring of illegal aliens will not be considered citizens of the United States. Evidence garnered from an illegal search and seizure, in violation of a person’s 4th Amendment rights, is considered fruit from a poisonous tree and thrown out of court. Likewise, the child of an illegal alien be should not be considered an American citizen simply because the child’s mother violated the law. Both the child and the mother should be deported to the mother’s country of citizenship.

For those who think this solution is harsh or insensitive, try convincing the families of homicide victims at the hands of illegal aliens. Try convincing the families of rape or abduction victims at the hands of illegal aliens. Illegal means just that – illegal – against the law. Being a naturalized American is a privilege, not a right, and the sooner interlopers understand that, the better off they will be, as will the rest of us.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Rahm Emanuel is the opportunist’s opportunist. The Obama administration Chief of Staff first said “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Then, this past weekend, Emanuel referred to Congressman Joe Barton’s apology to BP as a “gift,” demonstrative of how the GOP would behave. For that, Emanuel is a villain.

Texas Republican Joe Barton chided the Obama administration last week for “shaking down” BP to the tune of $20 billion, in the form of an apology to the beleaguered oil company. Barton then redacted his apology to BP, no doubt under pressure from key GOP leadership who may have threatened to relieve Barton of his ranking position on the Energy and Commerce Committee. For his backpedaling, Barton is a villain.

It begs the question, who shook down Barton? What was wrong with his apology to BP? Barton merely expressed what he believed to be an inappropriate action by the Obama administration to make financial demands on a private corporation. Financial demands that would hurt not just the company’s bottom line – and deservedly so, as they are responsible for the worst oil spill in American history – but the investments of private citizens. That any member of the Obama administration would demand that BP not pay its dividend to its investors is disturbingly anti-capitalist, but not surprising. For such dubious financial advice, the Obama administration is a villain.

BP no doubt capitulated to avoid a deepening public relations nightmare, which, quite frankly, they brought upon themselves via the numerous verbal gaffes by CEO Tony Hayward as well as a number of spokesmen for whom English is not their first language. BP is certainly a villain on so many levels.

Public relations plays a major role in the restoration or continued deterioration of the image of BP, the Obama administration and even Congressman Barton.

The media determined BP is the villain because of the environmental disaster unleashed upon the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding communities – and rightfully so.

But hold the phone just a minute here – while appropriately castigating Hayward, the so-called mainstream media has said little of Obama, except to criticize him for wanting to find someone’s ass to kick. For that, the lame-stream media is a villain.

The media needlessly piled on Hayward grilling him for spending the past weekend on his yacht, after being relieved of his spokesman responsibilities. Clearly Hayward is an insensitive dolt and a villain, but not after being replaced as spokesman.

However, where was the media criticism of Obama for playing two rounds of golf in the past five days? (He’s played more golf in the last week than I have in the past year. A friend suggested I become president so I might play more golf.) And instead of criticizing Obama for taking in last Friday’s Nationals – White Sox game at NationalsPark, a simple picture in The Washington Post shows Obama enjoying the national pastime. For lacking the sense of urgency and his late arrival on the scene Obama is most assuredly a villain.

However, once Obama did arrive on the scene, he wandered about looking for someone’s ass to kick. The media did not criticize Obama for not knowing whose ass to kick (both his own and BP’s) but instead focused on his use of language. I applaud him for wanting to find someone’s ass to kick – it was Obama’s first sign of emotion during this entire debacle.

Shame on the media for feigning Puritan and Victorian shock in the wake of coarse language – see also Vice President Joe Biden, the dust up between Senator Patrick Leahy and former Vice President Dick Cheney and countless others.

As a journalist/columnist, rest assured, there’s nary a newsroom not rife with coarse language – and politicians are certainly no different, so cut the crap and the false indignation. For not placing criticisms where they belong, the media is again a villain.

Where there is a villain, there is a hero – black hats versus white hats as depicted in old Westerns. Bottom line – many villains, the only known heroes – the residents and business owners in the Gulf region trying to restore some semblance of a life.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Barack Obama left his ivory tower to talk about the progress of the stimulus package, yet his visit cost construction workers a day’s pay and nary a word was uttered about it in the so-called main stream media. However, a BP spokesman, for whom English is not his first language, misplaced an idiom referring to the residents of the Gulf of Mexico as the “small people,” and all hell broke loose.

Obama just doesn’t get – he really doesn’t. While in the Columbus, Ohio area to give another one of his “rah rah,” innocuous speeches about how the alleged stimulus is working at the groundbreaking of a government-sponsored road project, a block or two away on Parsons Avenue in Livingston stood a hospital under construction void of its workers at the Turner-Smoot site.

Not only was the construction site shut down due to Obama’s security, but the employees were forced to take an UNPAID day off. Were I one of the workers at this construction site the only stimulus I would feel is the ire at this clueless administration. Could this be more wrong? These workers did not have a choice in this unpaid day off. Obama should pay the employees’ wages out of his own pocket – not the company till, and certainly not the taxpayers coffers – but Obama himself. Shame on him.

Obama was in town roughly 90 minutes, gave a 14 minute speech and then hustled out of dodge for whatever the rest of his agenda called for prior to showing up at NationalsPark to watch his beloved Chicago White Sox take on the home team in Friday night’s baseball game. And where was the union representing the income-deprived construction workers? Instead of fighting for the lost wages of those they are paid handsomely to represent, they are no doubt tucked snuggly in Obama’s back pocket.

As indicated above, the lame stream media did not report the whole story. The Washington Post, for example, had a picture of Obama with road workers standing supportively behind him – road workers benefiting from Obama’s largesse with the taxpayer’s money. No where in the lengthy, disingenuous story was it reported that the Obama visit supplanted the work of an entire construction site costing the workers a day’s pay. That information had to be culled from several on-line sources.

This is just another example of the cover up of an inept administration by a media unwilling to do their due diligence and report the whole story for the people who expect just that of a newspaper they pay good money to receive. Make the photo just a bit smaller and add a paragraph that completes the story giving the readers all the necessary information to make a fair assessment of a situation.

It’s called reporting, not fawning.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

In actions that should slam the lid on the Congressional career of Bob Etheridge, the seven-term Democratic Representative in North Carolina’s second district swatted a video camera, grabbed and grappled with two young men claiming to be working on a project for school.

What set the events in motion was a question by one of the youthful unidentified interviewers to the Congressman who serves on both the powerful Committee on Ways and Means as well as the House Budget Committee. “Do you support the Obama agenda?” was the question asked the 68-year-old North Carolina native who did in fact, vote for Obama-care.

The mere question served as a switch that flipped in Etheridge causing him to ask the identity of the young men no less than 13 times. While I in no way endorse Etheridge’s behavior of touching either the camera or the two young men, he was right in saying he had a right to know with whom he was talking.

Congressman Etheridge should absolutely be brought up on charges for assaulting these two youths; after all, he took a swipe at the video camera and then grabbed one of the questioners’ arms before grabbing his neck – all caught on video. A couple days later, Etheridge offered an apology about how his behavior was inappropriate, but when asked if he apologized to the two young men, the Congressman said he could not as they were still yet to be identified.

And herein lies the rub. No condoning the actions of the congressman, however, proper decorum as a journalist is to identify oneself by name and media outlet, preferably with a business card in one hand and a handshake with the other. This is why amateur so-called journalists, bloggers, anyone with a camera and a tape recorder give a bad name to professionally trained journalists who behave appropriately.

Having worked as a professional journalist for a number of years, and an award-winning one at that, I would never have approached the congressman or anyone, for that matter, the way these two amateur “photojournalists” did, by thrusting a camera in his face and hurling questions prior to identifying myself. It is perfectly correct to blame Etheridge with responsibility for his actions as long as the amateur scribes also accept irresponsibility for their lack of proper protocol. If they want to be journalists, the least they can do is act like responsible journalists and not besmirch a profession already castigated for playing fast and loose with etiquette and “gotcha” politics.

While Congressman Etheridge should be charged with assault, I do not want to see him resign. I want to see him vanquished at the ballot box in November by his Republican challenger Renee Ellmers, the Michigan native who earned a BS in nursing from OaklandUniversity.

In addition to her nursing background, Ellmers is the Clinical Director of the TrinityWoundCareCenter in Dunn, NC, has served on the Dunn Planning Board and is President-Elect of the Chamber of Commerce. Ellmers said Etheridge’s stance supporting and voting in favor of Obama-care prompted her candidacy.

Ellmers can build on her background and experience in the medical field to catapult her into a congressional seat where she can do some good fighting against the government takeover of healthcare and one-sixth of the American economy. And in doing so, she can turn an arrogant congressman and self-proclaimed part-time farmer into a full-time farmer. And that’s no bull.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

If the Democratic Party of South Carolina truly believes in the American system of fair and open elections, it will stop attempting to sabotage its own senatorial candidate.

Granted, this advice comes from a Republican eager to see Senator Jim DeMint reelected to the body he serves in so well, but, the Democrats ought to remember, the people have spoken. Don’t the Democrats claim to be the party of the people?

That an unknown candidate, Alvin Greene, came from virtually nowhere to defeat a four-term state legislator, Vic Rawl, who also served as a judge, is demonstrative of two things. One, that the voters have a distaste for entrenched elected officials and, more importantly, they did not conduct their due diligence in vetting the candidates prior to arriving at the polls on Tuesday, June 8.

The South Carolina Democratic Party, lead by its chairman Carol Fowler, in an effort to wipe the egg from its face, is attempting to blame the Republicans of shenanigans in shanghaiing the primary by crossing party lines and voting for Greene. South Carolina is one of a number of states where voters do not register by political party, and thus the primary is deemed open to all registered voters in the PalmettoState.

Greene, an unemployed 32-year-old political science graduate of the University of South Carolina, is currently facing felony obscenity charges relating to a claim he showed pornography to a USC student last year. Should Greene be convicted and imprisoned, he ought to lose his place on the general election ballot in November and perhaps replaced with Rawl, who finished behind Greene in the primary.

At the very least, the party leaders are attempting to convince Greene to withdraw from the race, who would have none of it, already challenging DeMint to a debate in September.

Whether or not there was a concerted GOP effort to corrupt the Democratic primary by placing a candidate with little to no chance of victory in the general election is not the issue. The issue is the legitimacy of open primaries. It’s sort of akin to allowing an American League team entry into the National League playoffs in baseball.

Democrat Party primaries should be for Democrats and Republican Party primaries should be for Republicans and the only way to ensure this is require voters to register as a member of one party or another in order to vote in a primary. The Commonwealth of Virginia is an open primary state, yet I have never participated in a Democrat Party primary.

Open primaries lend themselves to the kind of chicanery the South Carolina Democrats are accusing the Republicans of perpetrating. It is untoward and dirty pool, but having been involved in politics for 30 years, winning at all costs takes on new, more expensive meanings with the cost of campaigns rising to astronomical stratospheric realms. Make no mistake, that does not excuse the kind of behavior that increasingly keeps citizens from participating in choosing their elected officials. Voter turnout seems to wane while voter apathy seems to wax.

At least shake the stink off primaries by closing them and keeping them within the parties as is their intended purpose. Each party selects its nominees to run against the chosen candidates of the other party or parties. For those who prefer to remain independent, their opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate comes in the November general election.

Regardless of open or closed primaries, it is every voter’s responsibility to determine the fitness for office of each candidate prior to casting that all important ballot. Those votes are important at every level of government, and not just once every four years when the White House welcomes a new resident. After all, we don’t call the president to fix our potholes or lower our property taxes or create a charter school in our neighborhood.

Speaking of schools, do your civics homework and be responsible citizens. Research and vet the candidates. Let your voices be heard.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Before the Helen Thomas apologists jump on my mere mention of the name Hitler, I am not comparing the retired anti-Semitic journalist to the Nazi dictator. However, when Michael Freedman, former managing editor for United Press International titles his op-ed “Remember all the good that Helen Thomas did,” (The Washington Post, June 9, 2010) I am reminded that Hitler liked and was nice to dogs.

Freedman referenced Thomas as “the Patron Saint of White House Correspondents – the person most feared by many a president on the eve of a news conference – has uttered hurtful comments about Israel.”

While Freedman is genuflecting before the altar he has constructed for Thomas, and having forgotten his history, I will parse his prior thought. Thomas, far from saintly, simply managed to outlast H.L. Mencken and other anti-Semites in her chosen profession and gained “first chair” in the White House press room. Well, like an aging violinist, her time had long since come and she has not been making beautiful music, if she ever did.

Thomas’ comments about Israel were not “uttered,” as in demurely stated in quiet tones. Instead Thomas shouted from the rooftops her long-held beliefs about Israel and the Jewish people, and in the case of her May 27 loathsome screed, it was in direct answer to a question put forth by Rabbi David Nesenoff, who with his 17-year old son and a friend were clad in their yarmulkes, according to Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post.

I will agree with Freedman that Thomas was “feared by many a president.” Typically, those were the Republican presidents with whom Thomas disagreed and only took to task the Democrats when they did not sway far enough to the left for her comfort. However, once the octogenarian became an editorialist for Hearst, she ceased possessing relevance in the press corps and should have been retired or at least become a back bencher.

For Thomas, her hateful comments that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go home to Germany and Poland, which she then repeated adding the United States to locales where the rightful citizens of Israel should reside, were at least consistent with the beliefs of the Lebanese-American. Germany and Poland – ah, yes, the good ole days of concentration camps and genocide brought on by Hitler’s Holocaust of European Jewry.

Thomas wouldn’t even utter the correct geo-political name “Israel” as the land she wishes would empty of its Jewish population. Apparently Thomas would prefer the Jewish people wander the Diaspora for eternity. For all the platitudes showered upon Thomas by her apologists, knowledge of history certainly was not among them.

Freedman also incorrectly suggested that Thomas regretted her anti-Semitic vitriol. “Thomas offered a sincere and meaningful apology,” wrote Freedman, who could not be further from the truth. Thomas did not apologize for what she said. She offered a disingenuous statement that she regretted her comments. Her legacy demonstrates otherwise.

“They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” Those words are neither sincere nor meaningful when the person spouting them desires a single-peopled nation in the Middle East and in Israel specifically.

Thomas should take her own advice, as she demonstrated no respect for Israel nor Israeli citizens – after all, she called for all Israelis to leave the Jewish state, not just all Jews. Clearly her desire to rid Israel of Israelis is not demonstrative of tolerance either.

Freedman then made an outlandish comparison between Thomas’ hate-filled remarks and Major League Baseball umpire Jim Joyce’s missed call, for which he issued a mea culpa admitting he cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a rare baseball occurrence – a perfect game. Joyce is a 21-year MLB veteran umpire highly regarded throughout the league who made a rare, yet significant error. Thomas has a career-long record of lambasting Israel, supporters of Israel and editorializing for Palestinians even while a supposed objective reporter.

Thomas did the right thing by retiring – only about two decades too late. Her contributions as a female journalist have been tarnished and by no means should this woman of hate be placed upon a pedestal. While the First Amendment gives Thomas the right to say and write hateful words, so long as they do not incite to riotous violence, so too does the same amendment grant those who disagree the right to applaud her long overdue exit from the public stage. As John McLaughlin would say, “bye-bye.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

I am a baseball purist. I don’t like artificial turf, lights at Wrigley Field, day-night “doubleheaders,” baseball played in Florida after April 1, three divisions per league, or the wild card – even when my Mets have benefited by it. Most of all I despise the designated hitter and inter-league play.

However, when the gift of technology can improve the national pastime, it should be embraced – at least on a limited basis. This baseball purist supports a limited use of instant replay with regard to maintaining the game’s accuracy. Last night’s Detroit Tigers-Cleveland Indians game at ComericaPark absolutely qualifies.

By now anyone with a pulse – baseball fans and non-baseball fans (if there could be such a person) alike, have seen and heard how 21-year veteran Major League Baseball umpire Jim Joyce made the most egregious and disastrous call in his career, costing Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Leading off the top of the ninth inning in Detroit, Cleveland’s Mark Grudzielanek almost made the Joyce call meaningless having smashed a deep fly ball that center fielder Austin Jackson hauled in a la Willie Mays. That should have been the perfect game saving play the broadcasters and fans should be talking about today. Indians catcher Mike Redmond made the second out on a routine ground out.

That lead to the drama of one out to reach perfection – a feat accomplished a mere 20 times in the history of Major League Baseball – although fans have been spoiled with two perfectos since May 9. Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies spun their gems on May 9 and May 29 respectively. Oh, and, by the way, Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies tossed a no-hitter on April 17, which in the world of the perfect games, has been lost in the shuffle.

With just Jason Donald standing between Galarraga and history, he hit a ground ball headed between the first and second basemen. First baseman Miguel Cabrera, moving to his right, fielded the ball and threw to the pitcher, Galarraga, properly covering first base. The ball hit the glove and Galarraga’s foot hit the bag easily beating Donald by a step, yet Joyce emphatically spread his arms to signify a safe call, ending the bid for perfection.

While Galarraga had a smile on his face, Cabrera and just about all the Tiger players swarmed around the umpire who clearly made a faulty call. Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland darted from the dugout and also vehemently questioned the Joyce call. With calm temporarily restored, Galarraga settled back into his groove and finished off the Indians by retiring center fielder Trevor Crowe.

At that point, 17,738 fans offered Galarraga a standing ovation for pitching the game of his life and simultaneously poured boos upon Joyce, who stood on the field taking the verbal harangue offered by Leyland and the majority of the Tiger team, who also congratulated their pitcher for what should have been Major League Baseball’s 21st perfect game.

Having watched the ninth inning on ESPN and seen the play costing Galarraga the perfect game live, plus the numerous replays from the various angles, it is clear that the umpire made the wrong call. So clear, Jim Joyce himself admitted as much, saying he made the wrong call and, “I just cost that kid a perfect game.”

Since the end of the game, which the Tigers defeated the Indians 3-0, the parties involved have acted with class, grace and dignity. There has not been name calling, threats, bad behavior or hand wringing as both teams take the field for a matinee with the same umpiring crew, and Joyce being rotated to calling balls and strikes. In fact, Leyland handed the lineup card to Galarraga to deliver to Joyce at home plate prior to this afternoon’s game and Joyce clearly was emotional and he, his fellow umpires and the Indians manager all shook Galarraga’s hand.

The ball is literally now in MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s hands. He needs to act on this and do so quickly – this call needs to be overturned and a perfect game awarded to Galarraga. To do so will not change the outcome of the game. Replay is currently employed in the case of verifying whether or not a questionable hit ball is a home run or not, so there is a precedent for using replay, although Selig has gone on record opposing it.

For those concerned about setting a new precedent, there should be a new precedent set – one that will allow for a replay to occur to guarantee the accuracy of the game at a time when it will not alter the outcome. Selig needs to reverse the call of that which the umpire who made it already admitted to committing an error. Such a reversal will protect the integrity of the game instead of damaging it.

Unfortunately, Selig, in a most politician-like manner, after applauding all who were involved in the situation last night for handling it with class, said this afternoon, that while the “human element” is part of the game, it does require some examination, without making a decision on the Galarraga near-perfect game. Selig said he needs to talk to the various unions and other such committees before making what should be a common sense decision and grant Galarraga his perfect game.

And as if the real politicians do not have enough work to do on behalf of their constituents, several have stepped up to the plate to opine on the Galarraga-Joyce saga. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm said she would issue a proclamation declaring that Galarraga pitched a perfect game. Both Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow and Congressman John Dingle said they would introduce resolutions in their respective houses calling for Major League Baseball to overturn the call of umpire Jim Joyce and grant Galarraga his perfect game.

While I agree with the sentiments of the politicians, shouldn’t they be figuring out how to reduce Michigan’s unemployment figures from 18 percent and bringing more jobs to the WolverineState? Should they be trying to figure out how to reduce the crime rates so people don’t continue fleeing the state en masse abandoning buildings and making places like Detroit look like Berlin in 1945?

The politicians need to get back to their jobs and Selig needs to do his job and reverse the Joyce call granting Galarraga the perfect game he earned.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and political consultant living in Alexandria, VA as well as a lifelong New York Mets fan – a team in existence since 1962 which has never thrown so much as a single no-hitter, let alone a perfect game.